Diversity versus Unity: A Comparative Analysis of the Complex Roots of the World Gymnaestrada.

This paper provides a comparative analysis of European gymnastics systems in the nineteenth century against the context of today's World Gymnaestrada, the purely non-competitive, official world event of the International Gymnastics Federation. Framed by the central question ‘Who did what kind of gymnastics for which purposes?’, the paper discusses the original purposes, issues of participation and key principles of several gymnastics systems in nineteenth-century Europe. The paper particularly addresses not only two major gymnastics concepts emerging at that time, namely German Turnen and Swedish gymnastics, but also their adoption and adaptation in Denmark and the Czech region. This comparative, historical analysis provides valuable insights into the essence of the largely under-researched World Gymnaestrada in general, and into one of its core aims, specifically, namely the celebration of the diversity of gymnastics. In spite of dramatic social change, there seems to be a rather stable core in this respect. Yet, different from the original ideas of the nineteenth century, at today's World Gymnaestrada, the different gymnastics concepts are no longer the object of political struggles, but they are celebrated and complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]